Correction: Herod the Great's Palaces (Not Temples)

Waterboy,

Do you support "Separation of Church and State"? Absolutely and it is law by the Magna Carta

What has separation of powers got to do with "Separation of Church and State"?

When all educated people were taught by the Church, the Church ran everything by the simple power of excommunication. Get excommunicated by the Anglican Church, before 1828, and you lost your State Job. The Magna Carta stopped the church in England from leading persecutions from 1297.

Which part of John's Gospel do you interpret as teaching "separation of powers"? John 5 verses 22 and 23.

Judges are paid well ($6,000 a week plus perks) precisely in order to prevent corruption. This has not worked at all. The pay a Judge gets is simply a State Bribe, to strike out any action that will cost the State money. These people take ages to make up their mind, precisely so that a Dutch auction can take place to determine who will supplement the Judges income the most, or refrain from retaliation.

Given the way that they are paid, who is it that gains influence over judges' actions consequent on the payment of their salaries? Once one bribe is taken a Judge is owned, and cannot ever go back. The other bribe given is immunity from prosecution. Jury trials universally make these unnecessary.

Today, separation of powers is our insurance against despotism and the media seems to have taken over the role of watchdog. That is a misstatement. By allowing a Judge to both Judge and Administer in the name of the Sovereign, powers are merged not separated.

We are (were) fortunate to live in a society where separation of powers, (existed) but this is still a fragile system. Very fragile indeed, when at any time the Commonwealth can instruct the Director of Public Prosecutions to prosecute and disgrace any Judge who steps out of line. The penalty from the Crimes Act 1914 ( Cth) is $33,000 a day, so it is no wonder they are good little public servants. They made an example of Murphy, and Judges are State slaves.

Believin' Pete

So you BELIEVE that Judges should be paid nothing and should be absolutely immune from criminal prosecution?

Waterboy, what can any one person possibly do to earn about a seven weeks wages in a week. Firstly every Judge is an Atheist. The Holy Bible absolutely prohibits one person from passing judgment on another, but Muslims, Jews and Atheists have no problem doing so. If they were not Atheists they would not take a job that damns them to certain consignment to the fiery depths, if they exist.

Every one of us is tempted at some time in our lives. When a man or woman takes a Judgeship, he or she is destroying democracy, taking a job where he or she will inflict violence every time a judgment is made, on one or another of the protagonists, and doing what the Scots hated doing; Taking the King’s shilling. By doing so, and failing to accept Christian Democratic principles, all Judges and Magistrates are damned. They have formed a Mutual Admiration Society, called the Australian Judicial College, to tell each other they are lovely.

To establish Republican Government, which they did not extend to the American Colonies, the English made the King take an Oath that made him or her an unelected President, who could not take that office unless by the Coronation Oath 1688, the person crowned bent the knee to Almighty God. In Republican Government which in the United States is Christian Government, jury trials in civil and criminal matters is mandatory. When the Poms tried to rule America like an occupied territory and denied Christians jury trials, there was a war. God’s side won.

When a small aristocracy was given immunity from prosecution, as in Stalin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, Mugabe’s Roman Catholic Zimbabwe, and any number of banana republics, the result has always been chaos. To survive as a democracy, the laws that allow anyone to test by trial any Judge, in a court, need to be freely available. They are legislated in place in the Commonwealth but Judges and Magistrates, are control freaks, and will not let anyone use them. We deliberately rejected an aristocracy in the Constitution, but the ruling class cannot accept that

Peter the believer,

Barristers at the level that are asked to be judges are seldom earning less than $100 000 per month. $6000 a week is a nominal amount for a huge amount of responsibility.

Only one really ignorant could claim it as a bribe. Many judges are christian who feel that they can take this huge drop in income to do a service to the community. And as such are mostly incorruptable.

Judges are not immune from procescution. The trial of justice Einfeld goes to prove this.

It would be nice if occasionally you bothered to base your posts on fact.

If you ask Bob Mugabe, he'll tell you he has a Marxist Zimbabwe, not a Roman Catholic Zimbabwe. The two aren't entirely compatible.